Breakage...And I can't understand why.

[Rikinkkulus]

Here I am, on the eve of the moment in which I wanted to post pictures of my first two natural hair styles, and I see something that confuses me.

I spray my hair with my spritz of spring water, aloe vera gel, jojoba and other essential oils, and I comb with the jilbere shower comb. My staple. My one true love. And I look down at my sweat pants and they have all kinds of tiny curly ques. Like the LHCFer I am, i pick up these hairs and I examine them for the white bulbs (shedding), split ends, or lack of both. Lack of both indicates breakage. A select few had white bulbs. The rest, lackedanything. What's happening? Here's the things I've done with my hair for the passed week:

- I undid my senegalese twists, sprayed and finger combed, then washed in sections with L'oreal's EverStrong sulfate-free fortify system shampoo, and conditioned with Dove's deep moisture conditioner. Blow dried and combed, put in Elasta QP mango butter, sealed with jojoba, did a twist out. I've just been doing twistouts and to keep from tangles and breakage I would spray and then detangle, tip to root. WHat am I doing wrong? I even trimmed yesterday in twists. Help!

 

[NappyNelle]

Maybe too much manipulation from the twistouts AND combing?

I can't wear my hair out frequently without experiencing some type of breakage. It's normal, unless your hair is coming out in clumps.

And I use combs maybe... 4x a year to detangle root to tip. I use my fingers any other time. Much gentler on my fine strands.

 

[Rikinkkulus]

Oh! That's a possibility. I usually use a comb because when I was transitioning I would keep the style and not detangle, so I had breakage later.

 

[Rikinkkulus]

More help guys? Bump!

 

[hair4romheaven]

Have done a protein treatment?

 

[Rikinkkulus]

I haven't yet. I thought about it, but my hair seemed fine so I didn't think it was a problem...maybe not?

 

[Cendra]

Can you tell us more about your reggie? Trying to see if you're perhaps over-moisturising and need more protein like hair4romheaven is suggesting...?

 

[hair4romheaven]

Especially coming out of protective styling you may need a protein treatment. Try one followed but a moist DC & see how it goes.

 

[lushcoils]

How often do you trim/dust?

 

[Nonie]

OP, small curly Q's or C's means breakage. Your ends are the oldest part of your hair and will break from age because with aging comes splitting and with splitting comes weaker pieces that break at the slightest little things. You may not see the first pieces that tear away coz they are so thin to get your attention. But after a piece has fallen off, what's left is a weak end that cannot withstand combing the way a whole piece might. So it will break off...but it will not look split.

Below are two pieces of coily hair. The one of the right is clearly split, while the one on the right looks whole, and strong:

But appearances can be deceiving, which is why when people say the are doing a Search and Destroy to find split ends, I find it futile. Below is the original image of those coils. The hair that looked whole is actually split too!

So if that little arm had torn off from combing and you saw the hair to the left as it appeared in the first image, you'd not understand why it broke.

A lot of manipulation can break fine strands at their weakest points but ends that are in bad shape will break off easily anyway because they are not strong. I don't know how often you dust or how long you had your senegalese twists in for. But the longer time passes, the older your ends get and more vulnerable they are too. Splits are inevitable but the damage they can cause can be minimized with regular dusting and if the dusting is done before the splits have had a chance to grow really big. Otherwise, the split and thus weakened ends will just break off.

 

[Rikinkkulus]

Thanks Nonie! I feel like I just got some knowledge laid on me. I've had my twists in since November, so about a month.

hair4romheaven, Cendra I wash every week (if I can) with Dove deep moisture shampoo and conditioner, though my shampoo ran out and I switched to the aforementioned L'oreal.
I used to pre-poo with unrefined shea butter and sesame oil, but I haven't done that in a while.
My most consistent thing that I use is my spritz, twice a day, once in the morning and at night (water, aloe vera gel, lavender, rosemary and jojoba oils)

That's really it. I moisturize with mango butter when my hair is not braided and seal with jojoba, but protein is kind of absent from my regimen lately. I just cut trimmed my ends for the first time since my BC in March...

 

[DrC]

rikinkkulous

I started using seamless combs and doing more finger combing. My split ends and mid shaft splits diminished.

 

[Raine054]

I'm guessing it's the comb. Is the Jilbere shower comb seamless?

I always had the most breakage when I combed wet hair using a comb with seams. It's like my hair was being shredded. I got a seamless comb and I've never looked back.

 

[My Friend]

My vote is for a protein treatment.

 

[Cendra]

I agree with My Friend, you may be needing a protein boost.

 

[tiffers]

I'm too lazy to look it up, but don't Dove products have cones? And the Mango Butter, that has lanolin or something like that in it, right?

Are you relaxed? When was the last time you chelated? Sounds like you need a good chelating/clarifying.

Also, what did you use when you blowdried and flatironed? I didn't see any mention of a serum or protectant...